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> There is a theory that the root cause of these problems is the continued dismantling of traditional gender roles.

Except that Japan has kept traditional gender roles, where the woman leaves her job when marries, and they have one of the lower fertility rates in the world.

At the same time, Sweden with very strong gender equality has a higher fertility rate than other European countries. Even that it is still low compared with historical hights.

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Western countries have lower rates than Japan when you exclude for native birth rates. Western countries get a big boost in birth rate when you account for non-natives having population booms.

this, an often overlooked factor are immigrants’ contributions to SS in the united states

With the exception of Israel & Ireland, which are the only two western countries to have a positive native birth rate (avg >2.2 births/woman - supposedly 2.2 is the magic number that keeps a population size stable).

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